A Girl Adopted

Chapter 1- Amara

Wondering through the woods I remembered the first time I ran in here. That was the worst and the

best day of my life.

I am Amara Cross and I am sixteen years old. I am an 11th grader. My hair are reddish brown in colour

and eyes, chocolate brown. I have pale skin and I am 5 foot 3 inches tall. I skipped a grade, so I am in

the same grade with my sister, Elena. Elena and I moved in with our father Robert Cross this year and

by that I mean Elena moved in with our dad and I moved to a cabin in the woods. Robert lives in

Greycoast. I know weird name right. It's a small town surrounded by thick woods and you can barely

see the sun due to the clouds covering the sky almost every day. Ironic, isn’t it. But I love it here. I have

my own little heaven in the woods waiting for me, so I was quite excited to move here.

Elena and I lived with our mother Emma Cross till now in Esterden. This place is a total opposite of

Greycoast. It's hot there most of the time through the year. I love the warmth in Esterden though. We

used to spend our summer in Greycoast every year, which never felt like summer due to the weather.

My parents got divorced when I was barely a month old. They got married when they were just out of

school i.e. at the age of eighteen. Teen love and all that shit. My mom was pregnant with Elena at that

time. They used to live in Esterden, a warm place with lots of beach. Almost eight months after

marriage my sister was born. One kid is not that much of a problem for a low income family right. They

managed pretty well. But after about three months, my mom got pregnant with me and that's when

things started going downhill. They were not ready for a second child. They were barely managing with

the first one. When I was born the situation got far worse. With so less money and two kids to raise,

their relationship snapped. They were not ready to handle the pressure. They started fighting a lot and

eventually ended up getting divorced. That’s what everyone tells me. I was too little to know anything

then. My father moved to Greycoast and my mother stayed in Esterden. I for the part, became a bitter

memory for them.

But that was just the start of the problems. My mother wouldn't look at me and father, he did not even

consider me as his daughter. Elena, she hated me for breaking her perfect family. I was a kid back

then, barely a month old at that time and can't take care of myself. That's when Uncle Dale and Aunt

Claire stepped in. Uncle Dale is father's older brother. He is eight years older than father. Aunt Clair is

his wife. They took me in. They have a son named Alec. We are two months apart. Alec is two months

older than me. So, we practically grew up as twins. If it wasn't for uncle, aunt and Alec, I wouldn't be

here. My mother, father and Elena are just my family on papers but my real family is uncle, aunt and

Alec. My parents refused to let Uncle and Aunt officially adopt me. Nobody knows the reason why.

Maybe they wanted to see me suffer more. Who knows!

But the summer ritual was compulsory for Elena and me from when we turned five and four. I didn't

want to go there as father practically ignored my existence whenever I was there. I always felt lonely

and unwanted in that house. I never understood though why they would send me there if they don’t

want to see me. I mean I was happy being away from their scowling, loathing faces. I used to take care Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

of myself. Dad used to smile at Elena and would never pay attention to me. He would take her to eat

outside, to the movies and I would be home alone starving or eating anything I can find in the kitchen,

which they made sure not to leave much. But I would still wait for them in hope to be noticed just once

maybe. I studied hard and got good grades so that mom and dad would praise me. I made myself

perfect in extracurricular too but, still no avail.

The year I turned ten, we went to Greycoast as usual for the summer break. It was almost the end of

the summer break. On that particular night my father came home early from work. Elena was staying at

her summer friends Leah and Mia Butler's house. Dad went in the kitchen and started drinking. I was

watching him from the small storage room door which I would get as a bedroom over the summer every

year. After an hour or so he stood up and started coming towards me. That was the first time he looked

me in the eye. The emotions in his eyes were not what I wanted to see though. His eyes were full of

hate and that hate was directed towards me. He stood right in front of me and started shouting at me,

"Because of you my family broke. Because of you Jessica left me. I wish you were never born, then we

would have been one happy family. I will make you suffer for everything you put us through." And with

that said he slammed his fist on the wall, an inch beside my head and went in his room. I started crying.

I didn't knew he hated me so much. I always used to think he is just mad at me about something but

hate, it was a whole different level.

And I did the most rational thing a scared ten year old could think of. I ran out of the house and into the

woods that were surrounding it. It was raining at that time as the summer break was about to end. I ran

aimlessly in the woods, tears streaming down my face. After sometime it got harder to see as it was

getting dark and the woods were dense. Only little light passed through. I tripped on a tree root and fell

face first and hit my head on a rock. Everything became woozy after that. My head hurt like hell and I

was in and out of consciousness. I thought I would die here with nobody to look for me. Even if they did

try to find me, what was the possibility that some wild animal wouldn’t eat me up first? I mean it’s a

freaking jungle for crying out loud. I thought I was done for.